THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND LOVE AND LETTERS!
I LOVE YOU ALL VERY VERY MUCH AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE AND TALK WITH YOU!
TOMORROW!
LOVE YOU!
SISTER LAWS
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
THIS IS MY LAST REAL PDAY!!!!! BAH!!!!!!!
Well, the time has come. So a couple of you asked, next week I will probably be able to READ emails, and write back, it's a pday, but we'll be going to zagreb and we'll be doing meetings etc. so i'm not sure what time i'll have, can't promise that i'll email ya'll. so you probably don't have to worry about it either BECAUSE WE'LL BE SEEING EACH OTHER IN 8 DAYS AND I WON'T NEED EMAILS BECAUSE I CAN TALK TO YOU FACE TO FACE!!!!! WOOHOOO! But feel free to email :)
This last week was really good. I can't think much right now, because i'm too excited, so I don't know how many details I'll be able to give you. ... It just felt better, like it felt like we were working harder and not like I was going home soon, like I wasn't thinking too much about coming home or worrying about it and we have people meeting with us and lots of things scheduled for this week upcoming, so I'm going to have a busy last week! It's going to be great. I have to pack and clean and lalala. It's going to be great. And I'm happy whenever I think about coming home and seeing you all! um um um... oh well last week I forgot to mention that I gave a talk in church. that was good. and then we also did a musical number, a song from the children's hymnbook, and I PLAYED the piano for it! it was probably the first time I've "accompanied" so to say, a musical number, and it was fun. It turned out good. and then yesterday at church we did another musical number, another song out of the children's book, and i sang this time with sister creager, and one of the elders played the piano. It's been fun, we decided a couple weeks ago to have a musical number every week before I go home, because we don't have musical numbers very often and it's nice for the members.
my mission-winding-down plans: on monday morning very very early we're catching a train to zagreb, we'll arrive around 10am and have to be to the mission office at 11 for some meeting or another, and to finalize finances, make sure we're not stealing money from the mission type of thing, and have a last interview, and then that evening we'll have dinner at the mission home I think, and have a final testimony meeting, I'll spend the night there at the mission home. and then very early tuesday morning someone will take me to the airport and I'll be off! So. yeah... yeah, that's basically all I can think about right now. I don't know what else to say.
We ate at mcdonald's this last week. it's a pretty nice place here. the apple pies aren't the same, not as good. but there's a ciabatta "sandwich" hamburger that is really good. and "domaći pomfrittes" home-land-made french fries that are really tasty, they have good seasonings on them. I've still got to pack this week and I'm not too worried about weight-limit, but maybe a little. I've collected a lot of books since being here, we have everything once in english and then in croatian so I have twice as many books. No, that's a lie I have way more than twice as many. but anyway, that's something I'll do this week. and we'll have to clean the apartment for whoever is coming in new, and we need to have last meetings with lots of members and people. busy busy busy.
ok, I better wrap this up! have a good week!
sister laws
SEE YOU SOON!!!
This last week was really good. I can't think much right now, because i'm too excited, so I don't know how many details I'll be able to give you. ... It just felt better, like it felt like we were working harder and not like I was going home soon, like I wasn't thinking too much about coming home or worrying about it and we have people meeting with us and lots of things scheduled for this week upcoming, so I'm going to have a busy last week! It's going to be great. I have to pack and clean and lalala. It's going to be great. And I'm happy whenever I think about coming home and seeing you all! um um um... oh well last week I forgot to mention that I gave a talk in church. that was good. and then we also did a musical number, a song from the children's hymnbook, and I PLAYED the piano for it! it was probably the first time I've "accompanied" so to say, a musical number, and it was fun. It turned out good. and then yesterday at church we did another musical number, another song out of the children's book, and i sang this time with sister creager, and one of the elders played the piano. It's been fun, we decided a couple weeks ago to have a musical number every week before I go home, because we don't have musical numbers very often and it's nice for the members.
my mission-winding-down plans: on monday morning very very early we're catching a train to zagreb, we'll arrive around 10am and have to be to the mission office at 11 for some meeting or another, and to finalize finances, make sure we're not stealing money from the mission type of thing, and have a last interview, and then that evening we'll have dinner at the mission home I think, and have a final testimony meeting, I'll spend the night there at the mission home. and then very early tuesday morning someone will take me to the airport and I'll be off! So. yeah... yeah, that's basically all I can think about right now. I don't know what else to say.
We ate at mcdonald's this last week. it's a pretty nice place here. the apple pies aren't the same, not as good. but there's a ciabatta "sandwich" hamburger that is really good. and "domaći pomfrittes" home-land-made french fries that are really tasty, they have good seasonings on them. I've still got to pack this week and I'm not too worried about weight-limit, but maybe a little. I've collected a lot of books since being here, we have everything once in english and then in croatian so I have twice as many books. No, that's a lie I have way more than twice as many. but anyway, that's something I'll do this week. and we'll have to clean the apartment for whoever is coming in new, and we need to have last meetings with lots of members and people. busy busy busy.
ok, I better wrap this up! have a good week!
sister laws
SEE YOU SOON!!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
16 kolovoza 2011
HELLO FAMILY!
I think as it's getting towards the end of my mission I am becoming less satisfied with emails and wanting more and more to see you all face-to-face!! you know?? of course you know! so how is everyone? Good by the sound of your emails. I love hearing from you all SO SO much. You have such wonderful families and you all love me. :)
Well, what happened this week? Yesterday was a holiday, that is why we didn't email. Velika Gospa, some catholic holiday. Everything was closed and all that. But we went over to VUKOVAR! Dad sent me some cool facts about that place. We walked around and saw the famous water tower that was basically destroyed, I would send pictures but the place we're at I can't. So you will see them in a couple of weeks. It is a pretty holey water tower. And there is a lot of holey buildings, too! Unfortunately on the way there our bus broke down so we sat on the grass for an hour waiting for the next bus. And then we missed our bus going back, so we were in Vukovar for an extra 2 hours after we had already seen everything we wanted to. So we went out to eat and then sat at an ice-cream place for the rest of the time. It was actually pretty fun. I think because we didn't have emails yesterday, so we didn't have anything better to do but hang out in Vukovar. It was a nice place, a little bigger than we were expecting. I thought we'd never make it to that water tower, haha. And then we found a shortcut, well first we went the long way. And from a distance the water tower looks close. so we ended up going the long way and then found a short cut but the shortcut scared me, so we ran through it, it wasn't that scary really, actually really pretty with trees etc. felt like a hike, but then we finally got to the tower and it was HUGE and I was like, no wonder it looks so close, it's HUGE. It was a fun day.
The day before that was Sunday. While we were at church (halfway through) a blind lady walked in and asked "is this the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints?" and i said, yes. I was worried about who she was, what she was doing there. but apparently she lived in the united states for 8 and a half years, she went there as a refugee I think, and she didn't know any english or have family nearby, and so she prayed that God would help her and a couple days later two sister missionaries tracted into her! she's not a member, but we talked to her and she said she wants to be one. so anyway, she's in croatia right now because of some legal problems, the government took her property away or something, and she was looking for us since she got here but no one knew where we were or didn't want to help her, so Sunday she finally found us! And we met with her this morning, she loves hearing the hymns so we sang to her and lalala. she's a cute old lady, her name is Mira. She's planning on going back to the united states sometime, because her mom and brother live in Boise Idaho. Cool!
On Saturday, oh wait. I need to start back on last Monday for this story. So last Monday Sister Creager got her card taken by the ATM because she was positive that she knew her pin. But she put the wrong one in 3x and it was taken. We went into the bank right away and asked and they told us we could come back in on Tuesday and they'd give us the card. So on tuesday they closed early and we missed it. on wednesday we went in and they told us that they needed to cut up the card. and we were like, what? but we told them we'd call our people and our bank and work something out so they wouldn't cut it. on thursday we went back in and told them, we talked to our people and they said it's fine, that we can take the card like, they know it's not stolen or whatever and we have the right pin now. well, they said that their bank, the main office wouldn't let them give it to us, but they'd email and we could come back the next day. we were in zagreb on friday, so on saturday we went back in and miracle of miracles! we got the card back. they just asked her to put in the right pin and if everything was fine then she could take it. WOOHOO! what did I learn from this experience? don't put in the wrong pin. if you do, ask the bank and they will try to be accomodating. and if all else fails, bribes work. haha, i'm just kidding we didn't bribe them. but around wednesday we were considering it. That was our miracle for saturday.
Friday, as I mentioned, we were in Zagreb for zone conference. it was my last zone conference! which meant i gave a final testimony with the other 6 elders going home at the same time. and they somehow wrangled me into singing "ye elders of israel" with them for a musical number. just kidding, it was fun. they are a great group of elders. And zone conference was good. kinda surreal, because i knew everything that i was learning i didn't have a lot of time to implement. and i didn't get any mail from anyone. except for a letter from the office telling me about when i'm leaving. so super weird!
on thursday, i don't see anything exciting in my planner.
last wednesday, nothing also.
tuesday, we ate figs! they are so good and i was worried that i wouldn't be getting any, since they don't grow in osijek. well, they aren't native to osijek, people grow them still. and we found some and they were good. And we had another miracle on tuesday, because we've been trying to get sister creager registered at insurance. and ... oh just kidding. that was last monday. on tuesday we completed the task of registering. on monday is when we got the numbers etc. and I'm pretty sure I already told you about that.
Overall, a pretty good week. oh, and also yesterday, pday, we had family home evening as a branch, and a girl that me and sister creager met on the tram came! she is so much fun, full of energy, makes a lot of jokes, and she used to come to activities all the time when she was younger, so she's already had contact with the church etc. and knows stuff. should be great!
to answer a question: I don't exactly know how hot it is here in osijek. it's not exactly hot but last week INSIDE the internet cafe it was EXTREMELY HOT because the air conditioner was broken and there was no air flow. it was pretty disgusting. this week they have a window open and it's a little better. only a little longer and i won't have to be at an internet cafe. i can use my own computer. i still have a computer, right? and yes, it's more humid here than at home.
tonight we have english class. I think that is everything.
AMELIA: glad to hear that you're settling in and your ward is nice. i'll pray for the job thing!
JESSE: that's REALLY great that you guys have your own place now!
DAD: LOVE YOU, glad your bday was good.
MOM: you are such a good mommy :)
KELSEY: the picture of Nyah that you sent, I initially thought "what? she got her ears pierced and no one told me!!" and then i remembered that you had told me and I concluded that its been too long since I've seen your children.
MICHAEL: thanks for the quick note! looking forward to hearing all the details next week!
I love you my family!
SISTER LAWS
I think as it's getting towards the end of my mission I am becoming less satisfied with emails and wanting more and more to see you all face-to-face!! you know?? of course you know! so how is everyone? Good by the sound of your emails. I love hearing from you all SO SO much. You have such wonderful families and you all love me. :)
Well, what happened this week? Yesterday was a holiday, that is why we didn't email. Velika Gospa, some catholic holiday. Everything was closed and all that. But we went over to VUKOVAR! Dad sent me some cool facts about that place. We walked around and saw the famous water tower that was basically destroyed, I would send pictures but the place we're at I can't. So you will see them in a couple of weeks. It is a pretty holey water tower. And there is a lot of holey buildings, too! Unfortunately on the way there our bus broke down so we sat on the grass for an hour waiting for the next bus. And then we missed our bus going back, so we were in Vukovar for an extra 2 hours after we had already seen everything we wanted to. So we went out to eat and then sat at an ice-cream place for the rest of the time. It was actually pretty fun. I think because we didn't have emails yesterday, so we didn't have anything better to do but hang out in Vukovar. It was a nice place, a little bigger than we were expecting. I thought we'd never make it to that water tower, haha. And then we found a shortcut, well first we went the long way. And from a distance the water tower looks close. so we ended up going the long way and then found a short cut but the shortcut scared me, so we ran through it, it wasn't that scary really, actually really pretty with trees etc. felt like a hike, but then we finally got to the tower and it was HUGE and I was like, no wonder it looks so close, it's HUGE. It was a fun day.
The day before that was Sunday. While we were at church (halfway through) a blind lady walked in and asked "is this the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints?" and i said, yes. I was worried about who she was, what she was doing there. but apparently she lived in the united states for 8 and a half years, she went there as a refugee I think, and she didn't know any english or have family nearby, and so she prayed that God would help her and a couple days later two sister missionaries tracted into her! she's not a member, but we talked to her and she said she wants to be one. so anyway, she's in croatia right now because of some legal problems, the government took her property away or something, and she was looking for us since she got here but no one knew where we were or didn't want to help her, so Sunday she finally found us! And we met with her this morning, she loves hearing the hymns so we sang to her and lalala. she's a cute old lady, her name is Mira. She's planning on going back to the united states sometime, because her mom and brother live in Boise Idaho. Cool!
On Saturday, oh wait. I need to start back on last Monday for this story. So last Monday Sister Creager got her card taken by the ATM because she was positive that she knew her pin. But she put the wrong one in 3x and it was taken. We went into the bank right away and asked and they told us we could come back in on Tuesday and they'd give us the card. So on tuesday they closed early and we missed it. on wednesday we went in and they told us that they needed to cut up the card. and we were like, what? but we told them we'd call our people and our bank and work something out so they wouldn't cut it. on thursday we went back in and told them, we talked to our people and they said it's fine, that we can take the card like, they know it's not stolen or whatever and we have the right pin now. well, they said that their bank, the main office wouldn't let them give it to us, but they'd email and we could come back the next day. we were in zagreb on friday, so on saturday we went back in and miracle of miracles! we got the card back. they just asked her to put in the right pin and if everything was fine then she could take it. WOOHOO! what did I learn from this experience? don't put in the wrong pin. if you do, ask the bank and they will try to be accomodating. and if all else fails, bribes work. haha, i'm just kidding we didn't bribe them. but around wednesday we were considering it. That was our miracle for saturday.
Friday, as I mentioned, we were in Zagreb for zone conference. it was my last zone conference! which meant i gave a final testimony with the other 6 elders going home at the same time. and they somehow wrangled me into singing "ye elders of israel" with them for a musical number. just kidding, it was fun. they are a great group of elders. And zone conference was good. kinda surreal, because i knew everything that i was learning i didn't have a lot of time to implement. and i didn't get any mail from anyone. except for a letter from the office telling me about when i'm leaving. so super weird!
on thursday, i don't see anything exciting in my planner.
last wednesday, nothing also.
tuesday, we ate figs! they are so good and i was worried that i wouldn't be getting any, since they don't grow in osijek. well, they aren't native to osijek, people grow them still. and we found some and they were good. And we had another miracle on tuesday, because we've been trying to get sister creager registered at insurance. and ... oh just kidding. that was last monday. on tuesday we completed the task of registering. on monday is when we got the numbers etc. and I'm pretty sure I already told you about that.
Overall, a pretty good week. oh, and also yesterday, pday, we had family home evening as a branch, and a girl that me and sister creager met on the tram came! she is so much fun, full of energy, makes a lot of jokes, and she used to come to activities all the time when she was younger, so she's already had contact with the church etc. and knows stuff. should be great!
to answer a question: I don't exactly know how hot it is here in osijek. it's not exactly hot but last week INSIDE the internet cafe it was EXTREMELY HOT because the air conditioner was broken and there was no air flow. it was pretty disgusting. this week they have a window open and it's a little better. only a little longer and i won't have to be at an internet cafe. i can use my own computer. i still have a computer, right? and yes, it's more humid here than at home.
tonight we have english class. I think that is everything.
AMELIA: glad to hear that you're settling in and your ward is nice. i'll pray for the job thing!
JESSE: that's REALLY great that you guys have your own place now!
DAD: LOVE YOU, glad your bday was good.
MOM: you are such a good mommy :)
KELSEY: the picture of Nyah that you sent, I initially thought "what? she got her ears pierced and no one told me!!" and then i remembered that you had told me and I concluded that its been too long since I've seen your children.
MICHAEL: thanks for the quick note! looking forward to hearing all the details next week!
I love you my family!
SISTER LAWS
Monday, August 8, 2011
8 kolovoza 2011
Well family!
It was great to hear from you. I am feeling very tired, very thirsty, and the internet cafe that we're at is very very hot. I don't have a lot of energy for emailing right now...
Ok, I'll buck up a little bit for it..
Obviously the craziest news of this week: I'M COMING HOME A WEEK EARLY! Something about a mission presidents' meeting and so president rowe won't be in the mission when we're supposed to go home so he could have kept us all a month longer or sent us home a week early. He chose a week early since we have a very large group of missionaries coming in. and he probably wouldn't get brownie points for unexpectedly extending all of our missions, though if he had asked, I would have probably told him I would. anywho, here I come in 3 weeks home to the good ol America and family. THREE WEEKS! That's like nothing, that's like sneezing. Pretty crazy. I go back and forth about it, at first I was more disappointed because it meant I would miss out on that week, and I spent my whole mission thinking i would come home on september 6th. but the 30th is my day now.
oh, and because of this change of plans half of our group (there are 8 of us going home) is going at one time, one plane, and the other half is coming a little later or something. So the elders I actually served with are of course in the other group. So I may have a very boring plane ride home. but on the other hand, i'll have fun getting to know some elders that I didn't get a chance to serve with. make new friends I guess.
so i have definitely come to terms with coming home a week early and all that that entails and of COURSE I'm excited to see all of you :) as for my preference, if I would prefer you at the airport or at my homecoming. Probably the airport. It wouldn't exactly be coming home if I didn't see my family for a week and a half after I arrived. But if it is better for everyone else the homecoming, I'm ok with that, too. It will be how it will be.
what else? as I'm getting closer to the end of my mission I'm getting less talkative, I can't think of a lot of things to tell you all. and my week was pretty boring, and it's really hot here...
ok, second wind.
Last monday I played ping pong at family home evening after we were done with internet. That was pretty fun.
On tuesday while we were waiting for our english students to show up one old lady and I were talking about all kinds of things, Oprah, Obama, Michelle Obama, Croatia etc. And somehow we got on the category of singing and we ended up singing Edelweiss together. She's a cute old lady, and it was fun. It's kinda crazy all the people I've met through english classes.
Wednesday, nothing.
Thursday we went out to ice-cream with some of our english students after class, a mom and her three daughters. The daughters are 14ish, and two twin girls that are 8. They are such a sweet family and so loving. They invited us over to their house on Saturday, too, and fed us lunch. Yummy stuffed peppers, breaded chicken, these weird green potato and spinach ball things, and bacon. Well, croatia doesn't do bacon, but it was something like bacon. It is so cute to see how much they love each other and how affectionate they were, if it wasn't for the crosses and smoking etc they would be a golden mormon family. I guess they'll just have to be golden, for now. Oh, and the little girls are kinda half trying to learn english, they mostly just come to be with their mom and sister. And one of them wrote "aj lav mam" on the whiteboard, which is the phonetic, Croatian way of writing "I love mom" so stinking cute! they have a brother, too, that doesn't come to class but we met him on saturday, and we expected him to be maybe "too cool for school" or something, but he was really nice and he wants to live in NYC and he's training for American football. that's weird! he's the first person I've met here in croatia that is training for american football. They are a very cute family.
on friday we went over to an inactive's house and had a good lesson with them and talked a lot about recipes and cooking, which is hard because those words aren't exactly used that often in Croatian, so it was a little hard to follow the conversation, but we got along alright. I think I'll take them some American recipes like chocolate chip cookies and brownies etc. Because they mentioned liking American desserts.
So I was preparing a talk all week, because elder warren asked me to give one. and I was thinking on saturday morning, ok tomorrow we're fasting, because it's fast sunday. oh, and I need to finish my talk. and then i was like, wait a second, why am I giving a talk?? So I called him and he had totally forgotten that it was fast sunday as in, testimony meeting. And then during testimony meeting I was sitting there and I was thinking I probably wouldn't bear my testimony, just because. And then all of a sudden I realized that it would be my last fast sunday in Croatia. So I bore my testimony and I would have started to cry, because it overwhelmed me for a second, but I got ahold of myself and didn't cry at all.
Kinda crazy to start hitting "lasts" like, last fast sunday and last etc. can't think of other examples.
today we ALMOST finished everything we had to do for legal stuff. I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago that we'd spent the whole day doing legal stuff, this morning was a little like that. but we experienced some miracles, because we needed some numbers, like personal identification numbers, for sister creager. And the last time we had gone by the police station to get them they told us they couldn't give them to us, that we had to go to zagreb for them. well this time we went in, and they handed them right over! miracle! yay! I can't wait to be a citizen in the country I live in. haha, just kidding.
And with all of that we walked around in the sun and heat all day, it's been kinda hot today and this last weekend. so that's another reason I'm tired and the heat is NOT helping! so that is that :)
I love you my family! it was great to hear from you!
I will be seeing you all the sooner!
LOVE SISTER LAWS
oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
It was great to hear from you. I am feeling very tired, very thirsty, and the internet cafe that we're at is very very hot. I don't have a lot of energy for emailing right now...
Ok, I'll buck up a little bit for it..
Obviously the craziest news of this week: I'M COMING HOME A WEEK EARLY! Something about a mission presidents' meeting and so president rowe won't be in the mission when we're supposed to go home so he could have kept us all a month longer or sent us home a week early. He chose a week early since we have a very large group of missionaries coming in. and he probably wouldn't get brownie points for unexpectedly extending all of our missions, though if he had asked, I would have probably told him I would. anywho, here I come in 3 weeks home to the good ol America and family. THREE WEEKS! That's like nothing, that's like sneezing. Pretty crazy. I go back and forth about it, at first I was more disappointed because it meant I would miss out on that week, and I spent my whole mission thinking i would come home on september 6th. but the 30th is my day now.
oh, and because of this change of plans half of our group (there are 8 of us going home) is going at one time, one plane, and the other half is coming a little later or something. So the elders I actually served with are of course in the other group. So I may have a very boring plane ride home. but on the other hand, i'll have fun getting to know some elders that I didn't get a chance to serve with. make new friends I guess.
so i have definitely come to terms with coming home a week early and all that that entails and of COURSE I'm excited to see all of you :) as for my preference, if I would prefer you at the airport or at my homecoming. Probably the airport. It wouldn't exactly be coming home if I didn't see my family for a week and a half after I arrived. But if it is better for everyone else the homecoming, I'm ok with that, too. It will be how it will be.
what else? as I'm getting closer to the end of my mission I'm getting less talkative, I can't think of a lot of things to tell you all. and my week was pretty boring, and it's really hot here...
ok, second wind.
Last monday I played ping pong at family home evening after we were done with internet. That was pretty fun.
On tuesday while we were waiting for our english students to show up one old lady and I were talking about all kinds of things, Oprah, Obama, Michelle Obama, Croatia etc. And somehow we got on the category of singing and we ended up singing Edelweiss together. She's a cute old lady, and it was fun. It's kinda crazy all the people I've met through english classes.
Wednesday, nothing.
Thursday we went out to ice-cream with some of our english students after class, a mom and her three daughters. The daughters are 14ish, and two twin girls that are 8. They are such a sweet family and so loving. They invited us over to their house on Saturday, too, and fed us lunch. Yummy stuffed peppers, breaded chicken, these weird green potato and spinach ball things, and bacon. Well, croatia doesn't do bacon, but it was something like bacon. It is so cute to see how much they love each other and how affectionate they were, if it wasn't for the crosses and smoking etc they would be a golden mormon family. I guess they'll just have to be golden, for now. Oh, and the little girls are kinda half trying to learn english, they mostly just come to be with their mom and sister. And one of them wrote "aj lav mam" on the whiteboard, which is the phonetic, Croatian way of writing "I love mom" so stinking cute! they have a brother, too, that doesn't come to class but we met him on saturday, and we expected him to be maybe "too cool for school" or something, but he was really nice and he wants to live in NYC and he's training for American football. that's weird! he's the first person I've met here in croatia that is training for american football. They are a very cute family.
on friday we went over to an inactive's house and had a good lesson with them and talked a lot about recipes and cooking, which is hard because those words aren't exactly used that often in Croatian, so it was a little hard to follow the conversation, but we got along alright. I think I'll take them some American recipes like chocolate chip cookies and brownies etc. Because they mentioned liking American desserts.
So I was preparing a talk all week, because elder warren asked me to give one. and I was thinking on saturday morning, ok tomorrow we're fasting, because it's fast sunday. oh, and I need to finish my talk. and then i was like, wait a second, why am I giving a talk?? So I called him and he had totally forgotten that it was fast sunday as in, testimony meeting. And then during testimony meeting I was sitting there and I was thinking I probably wouldn't bear my testimony, just because. And then all of a sudden I realized that it would be my last fast sunday in Croatia. So I bore my testimony and I would have started to cry, because it overwhelmed me for a second, but I got ahold of myself and didn't cry at all.
Kinda crazy to start hitting "lasts" like, last fast sunday and last etc. can't think of other examples.
today we ALMOST finished everything we had to do for legal stuff. I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago that we'd spent the whole day doing legal stuff, this morning was a little like that. but we experienced some miracles, because we needed some numbers, like personal identification numbers, for sister creager. And the last time we had gone by the police station to get them they told us they couldn't give them to us, that we had to go to zagreb for them. well this time we went in, and they handed them right over! miracle! yay! I can't wait to be a citizen in the country I live in. haha, just kidding.
And with all of that we walked around in the sun and heat all day, it's been kinda hot today and this last weekend. so that's another reason I'm tired and the heat is NOT helping! so that is that :)
I love you my family! it was great to hear from you!
I will be seeing you all the sooner!
LOVE SISTER LAWS
oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
Monday, August 1, 2011
01 august 2011
The first one is a monkey at the zoo. We were friends. And him and the monkey next door were basically the only animals awake and active. Ok, that's an exageration, but right before that we looked at the big cats and they were all sleeping and boring.
The next one is Elder Schouten pretending to grab the monkey's hand. We think the monkey stuck his hand out because I'd reached my hand up when he was sitting there, because he picked up some food in his cage on the ground and then perched up there. So I was asking him to share. He didn't want to. And then he stuck his hand out. haha.
And the last one is a view of Osijek from the bridge! you can see their cathedral and the river and the "coast" stuff. hotels etc.
ENJOY!
Sister Laws
Today is the first day of AUGUST!! Woohoo!
I was actually writing in my journal yesterday or the day before, and I wrote "it's the last day of July, so now we're going into March... I meant August!" This year has truly flown by. Sister Creager mentioned that next transfer is Halloween and I was like, "WHAT?? We just had Halloween! That felt like yesterday!" And that is true and not at the same time. I really can't believe that it's already the end of the year -ish. Not to mention that it's the end of my mission! Holy crow! Kelsey asked if I've been counting down. Not exactly, but Elder Warren in my district, going home at the same time as me, reminds me often enough of how much time there is left and so I know there are only 5 more weeks. Some days that still seems like a long time and some days it's not. Like today, when I was thinking about it, I realized how fast that is in home-time. That is going to come so fast for you all. For me, too, of course. But for you! That will be like tomorrow. It does seem a little more real now that we're in August. Because this is my last full month. WHELP! Enough trunky talk :)
My week was good. I forgot my planner, so I can't remember everything that happened. Last Monday, I may have mentioned, we spent the whole day working on legal stuff. At the police station etc. Not a very fun pday activity. on Tuesday we had english of course and district meeting. On wednesday, nothing exciting. on Thursday, english class.
on Friday we got lost a little bit. Well, I think my definition of lost is different. Because to me we weren't lost, because I knew where we were and how to get home, but we were looking for a house for a lesson and we couldn't find it and didn't know exactly how to get there. So we weren't lost but we were confused. We rode a new tram (Well, there are only 2 trams in Osijek, so we rode the other one) and we ended up at the end of it, missed our stop. And then wandered around in a circle back to the tram and went home after that. I got ahold of the lady, because she hadn't answered her phone and told her that we were lost and we'd come the next day. Kinda funny.
Saturday was one of those classic missionary days, had a couple of lessons and 2 people told us they didn't want to keep meeting with us and one person just stood us up! But don't worry, I'm not discouraged. Those days happen. It kinda made me happy because I felt like a real missionary :)
Sunday was good. Church. Not as many members came as last week, but still a good number. And they all came like, 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started, so we were worried there wouldn't be anyone! That hasn't happened to me yet on my mission. So that's good.
TODAY we went to the Osijek ZOO! It was pretty fun. It's not exactly like American zoos, the meer cats had a 2-foot fence and we could have reached over and grabbed them out and cuddled with them. I guess if they had let us. A pretty small zoo which was good, because we were all tired by the end of it. The heat and walking and all that. And the zoo is on the othere side of the river, so yes, I walked over the foot bridge! Today was the first day that I did. We've been meaning to check out that side, but haven't gotten around to it. We've also been to a couple of different restaurants that are actually boats floating on the river. It's kinda cool.
And to answer your other question Dad, yes. There actually is a lot of war damage here in Osijek. There are a lot of buildings with bullet holes and they are re-doing a lot of old buildings so they look nice again. Some of the older historical-looking buildings.
And we'll probably go to Vukovar next week! That was really cool what you told me about it. Well, maybe cool isn't the right word for a war. But it's good stuff to know.
(Here's what I told Keshia: You are only about 30 km from Vukovar a prominant city in the Croatian War for Independence. Vukovar was basically bombed to the ground and it has been called the Worst damage to a city in Europe since WWII. 2,000 Croatian defenders held off 36,000 Serb troops for 87 days before being overrun and killed. Another 23,000 civilians went missing or were killed when the city finally fell. They left their heavily damaged water tower standing as a symbol of their losses. 10 km from Vukovar is a town named Ovcara. Some of the Vukovar citizens were taken to Ovcara and were tortured and killed there. They built a memorial in Ovcara for Croatians killed in the war.)
I've been reading in 3 Nephi and one of our lessons this last week a lady brought up a question about baptism and I was able to turn right to 3 Nephi 11 and read her what Christ teaches right when he arrives to the Americas. I thought that was cool. I remembered where it was because I'd just read it. and I found a Ensign from 1985! at the church and I read it this last week one day, and there was a really cool biography about Elder L. Tom Perry. His first wife died 7 months after he was called as an apostle! Crazy huh? And then he got remarried a little more than a year later. And he was talking about how much his parents involved all the kids in church callings, and they'd go clean the church and also with work, and he'd be at his dad's office a lot. And like, how we should involve our families and kids in our callings and work. It was kinda neat. Ooh, and President Harold B Lee (I hope that's the right one) ordained Elder Perry to be a high priest when he was in the quorum of the 12, and he said in the blessing that Elder Perry would be involved in the church's leadership councils or something like that, and Elder Perry was called to the quorum of the 12 when President Lee died! So he basically replaced President Lee. I thought that was pretty cool. I like learning stuff about the apostles. They are cool.
I'm glad that Amelia is getting settled in! I heard from her before she left for Texas but mom and dad mentioned that they'd talked to her. One of them said something about making connections with ward members, maybe job opportunities, and that's awesome! Oh, and I've totally thought about how fun it would be to live with you again, but I probably won't this time :( We'll see.
Jesse congratulations on getting a place! Well, on moving in this weekend hopefully :) New spaces to organize and make homey! so much fun.
Mom, say hi to grandma for me!
I love you all to pieces!
Sister Laws
The next one is Elder Schouten pretending to grab the monkey's hand. We think the monkey stuck his hand out because I'd reached my hand up when he was sitting there, because he picked up some food in his cage on the ground and then perched up there. So I was asking him to share. He didn't want to. And then he stuck his hand out. haha.
And the last one is a view of Osijek from the bridge! you can see their cathedral and the river and the "coast" stuff. hotels etc.
ENJOY!
Sister Laws
Today is the first day of AUGUST!! Woohoo!
I was actually writing in my journal yesterday or the day before, and I wrote "it's the last day of July, so now we're going into March... I meant August!" This year has truly flown by. Sister Creager mentioned that next transfer is Halloween and I was like, "WHAT?? We just had Halloween! That felt like yesterday!" And that is true and not at the same time. I really can't believe that it's already the end of the year -ish. Not to mention that it's the end of my mission! Holy crow! Kelsey asked if I've been counting down. Not exactly, but Elder Warren in my district, going home at the same time as me, reminds me often enough of how much time there is left and so I know there are only 5 more weeks. Some days that still seems like a long time and some days it's not. Like today, when I was thinking about it, I realized how fast that is in home-time. That is going to come so fast for you all. For me, too, of course. But for you! That will be like tomorrow. It does seem a little more real now that we're in August. Because this is my last full month. WHELP! Enough trunky talk :)
My week was good. I forgot my planner, so I can't remember everything that happened. Last Monday, I may have mentioned, we spent the whole day working on legal stuff. At the police station etc. Not a very fun pday activity. on Tuesday we had english of course and district meeting. On wednesday, nothing exciting. on Thursday, english class.
on Friday we got lost a little bit. Well, I think my definition of lost is different. Because to me we weren't lost, because I knew where we were and how to get home, but we were looking for a house for a lesson and we couldn't find it and didn't know exactly how to get there. So we weren't lost but we were confused. We rode a new tram (Well, there are only 2 trams in Osijek, so we rode the other one) and we ended up at the end of it, missed our stop. And then wandered around in a circle back to the tram and went home after that. I got ahold of the lady, because she hadn't answered her phone and told her that we were lost and we'd come the next day. Kinda funny.
Saturday was one of those classic missionary days, had a couple of lessons and 2 people told us they didn't want to keep meeting with us and one person just stood us up! But don't worry, I'm not discouraged. Those days happen. It kinda made me happy because I felt like a real missionary :)
Sunday was good. Church. Not as many members came as last week, but still a good number. And they all came like, 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started, so we were worried there wouldn't be anyone! That hasn't happened to me yet on my mission. So that's good.
TODAY we went to the Osijek ZOO! It was pretty fun. It's not exactly like American zoos, the meer cats had a 2-foot fence and we could have reached over and grabbed them out and cuddled with them. I guess if they had let us. A pretty small zoo which was good, because we were all tired by the end of it. The heat and walking and all that. And the zoo is on the othere side of the river, so yes, I walked over the foot bridge! Today was the first day that I did. We've been meaning to check out that side, but haven't gotten around to it. We've also been to a couple of different restaurants that are actually boats floating on the river. It's kinda cool.
And to answer your other question Dad, yes. There actually is a lot of war damage here in Osijek. There are a lot of buildings with bullet holes and they are re-doing a lot of old buildings so they look nice again. Some of the older historical-looking buildings.
And we'll probably go to Vukovar next week! That was really cool what you told me about it. Well, maybe cool isn't the right word for a war. But it's good stuff to know.
(Here's what I told Keshia: You are only about 30 km from Vukovar a prominant city in the Croatian War for Independence. Vukovar was basically bombed to the ground and it has been called the Worst damage to a city in Europe since WWII. 2,000 Croatian defenders held off 36,000 Serb troops for 87 days before being overrun and killed. Another 23,000 civilians went missing or were killed when the city finally fell. They left their heavily damaged water tower standing as a symbol of their losses. 10 km from Vukovar is a town named Ovcara. Some of the Vukovar citizens were taken to Ovcara and were tortured and killed there. They built a memorial in Ovcara for Croatians killed in the war.)
I've been reading in 3 Nephi and one of our lessons this last week a lady brought up a question about baptism and I was able to turn right to 3 Nephi 11 and read her what Christ teaches right when he arrives to the Americas. I thought that was cool. I remembered where it was because I'd just read it. and I found a Ensign from 1985! at the church and I read it this last week one day, and there was a really cool biography about Elder L. Tom Perry. His first wife died 7 months after he was called as an apostle! Crazy huh? And then he got remarried a little more than a year later. And he was talking about how much his parents involved all the kids in church callings, and they'd go clean the church and also with work, and he'd be at his dad's office a lot. And like, how we should involve our families and kids in our callings and work. It was kinda neat. Ooh, and President Harold B Lee (I hope that's the right one) ordained Elder Perry to be a high priest when he was in the quorum of the 12, and he said in the blessing that Elder Perry would be involved in the church's leadership councils or something like that, and Elder Perry was called to the quorum of the 12 when President Lee died! So he basically replaced President Lee. I thought that was pretty cool. I like learning stuff about the apostles. They are cool.
I'm glad that Amelia is getting settled in! I heard from her before she left for Texas but mom and dad mentioned that they'd talked to her. One of them said something about making connections with ward members, maybe job opportunities, and that's awesome! Oh, and I've totally thought about how fun it would be to live with you again, but I probably won't this time :( We'll see.
Jesse congratulations on getting a place! Well, on moving in this weekend hopefully :) New spaces to organize and make homey! so much fun.
Mom, say hi to grandma for me!
I love you all to pieces!
Sister Laws
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